1. Field of the Art
The present invention relates to novel polymers suitable for use in hair-care products. More particularly, the present invention relates to a polymer comprising as an essential constituent units of a hydrophilic unsaturated monomer which affords hair an excellent brilliance and gloss and a smooth feeling and has an excellent washability, and into which a polysiloxane group has been introduced.
The polymers in accordance with the present invention can be used for providing hair with settability, softness, gloss, smooth feeling, smooth combing, recovery from damages, manageability and the like.
2. Related Art
In hair-care products such as a shampoo, a rinse, a hair treatment product, a hair setting product or a cold permanent wave solution have heretofore been used oily components such as silicone compounds, ester compounds, hydrocarbon compounds or the like in an emulsified, solubilized or dissolved state, for the purpose of providing hair with brilliance, gloss and smoothness. The silicone type compounds among them have these years been used extensively because of their excellent properties.
Specifical examples of application of silicone compounds include (i) hair-care products into which silicone oils such as polydimethylsiloxane, polymethylphenylsiloxane or the like and their emulsion have been incorporated; (ii) aerosol foam type hair setting products such that an etherified silicone such as a polydimethylsiloxane-polyoxyalkylene block copolymer or the like has been incorporated into a hair-fixative polymer such as a cationic polymer or an amphoteric polymer to form, together with a propellant, the aerosol products (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 135319/88); (iii) shampoos and rinses into which an aminated organopolysiloxane emulsion has been incorporated (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 307811/63); (iv) hair conditioning product and hair-setting products such that an aminated organopolysiloxane emulsion has been incorporated into a cationic polymer compound and an amphoteric polymer compound, respectively, to form the hair conditioning product and hair-setting products (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 275515/88); and (v) hair-care products in which polydimethylsiloxane or polymethylphenylsiloxane having a high molecular weight is used (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 243019/88).
However, the silicone oils or the etherified silicones when used may cause problems such as giving sticky feeling to hair or undergoing reverse transition of silicone from hair to hand or clothing if they are formulated in a large amount or if the product is used repeatedly for a long time. Emulsions of silicones may have problems in dispersion stability. Silicones having a high molecular weight may have problems in the compatibility with hair care resins or additives, so that they have restrictions in formulation whereby their applicability in a variety of hair-care products is restricted.
The silicone compounds having no such hydrophilic groups as a polyether group are difficult to be removed by usual hair washing, and thus when consumers use the products into which the less hydrophilic silicone compounds have been formulated for a long period repeatedly, hair tends to be hydrophobic and causes problems in hair dyeing or permanent waving.